//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Second Lunar Law // Story: The first Lunar Laws // by vadram //------------------------------// The Second Law After she was out of sight Luna turn to make sure the two were not following her. They were nowhere to be seen. “Be safe, my friends.” She ran down a tunnel, following the sound. Whenever she thought the creature would come into her sights the sound would stop only to resurface far away and in a completely different direction then the one she was heading in. “It is fast, whatever it is. But i am faster.” The two ponies had some trouble returning to the glowing cave, but after a few wrong turns and some backtracking they finally managed to find it again. “Did you hear anything back there?” “No I did not, but I think Luna did.” “Yeah, whatever it was sure had spooked her.” “I know... Do you think we should... tell her.” “Tell Lia? I do not know... she is her sister after all, but...” “Yeah...” “Tell me what?” They were so engulfed in their conversation that they did not even notice notice when they passed by Celestia. They turned, and saw the white alicorn standing tall, towering above them. She looked down on them and asked again in an even more commanding voice, “Tell me what?” “Well you see miss Lia...” they could see that she was frowning at the mention of that name. “Miss Celestia”, she corrected herself taking note not to call her that again, “we were in the tunnels looking for Luna..." "But after we found her she heard a noise...” “We did not hear anything but whatever it was worried her.” “She told us to return here while she investigated but whatever it was worried her.” “We did not want to worry you too.” “So we did not know if we should tell you or not.” “Oh Luna always rushing headfirst into troubles.” Celestia said with a much calmer tone. “Are you sure you did not hear anything?” she asked the two. “No we did not. Either she imagined or her hearing is much better than ours.” “I see. Next time you see her doing something so rash you tell me immediately, understood?” “Yes ma’am.” Celestia headed towards the center of the room where the puddle had once been, but now only mud remained. The unicorns were sleeping next to it hoping that when they woke up they will that it had filled up with water again. Having eaten or trampled on most of the mushroom around them they were now just laying there, surrounded by darkness. “Hey, you two, get up.” she told told them gently poking two of them trying to wake them up without scaring them. “Go away”, one of them said half asleep. “Let me sleep.” “Now now, is that anyway to speak with your queen?” Celestia said while a small smile creeped on her face. “Queen?” He had opened his eyes a little. “My queen!” he said finally realizing who he was speaking with. “Get up. Our queen wants to speak to us”, he told the other unicorn shaking him violently. “I am awake, I am awake. What is it? Ah my queen, what do you desire of us?” he said desperately trying to contain his shock and a yawn. “My sister is missing and...” “And you want us to go look for her?” one of the unicorn curiously asked. “No, Luna is more than capable of taking care of herself. I want you to stand guard at the chamber entrance until she returns.” “Us stand guard? We are no soldiers. Why do not you send this two to stand guard.” He was pointing her hoof at the two earth ponies. “Yeah at least their scream will alert us if something is coming”, the other said to himself. Celestia looked down at them, disappointment could be read upon her face, but only for a minute. Her smile quickly returned even wider than before. “What an excellent idea. I am sure the sound of your bone crushing under the fangs of some giant creature and your screams of utter pain, will give us more than enough of a warning to prepare our defenses. I only wanted for you to stand near the entrance and run back to us when you see something but I am so proud of you for volunteering your lives.” The two unicorn began shaking in fear. The way she talked of their deaths, with such a wide smile on face was terrifying to say the least. Celestia never raise her voice, never made any threats towards them, no matter what they had done or how much they managed to anger her. Luna on the other hoof... But now they were wishing she did. Anything would have been preferable compared to her gentle, calm, almost angelic face (not that ponies believed in angels) that was sending them to their doom. “Now my loyal subjects, go and fear not, your deaths will not be in vain. Nor will your sacrifice be forgotten.” They lowered their heads in defeat, and slowly walked away. Celestia joined the rest of the unicorns and tried to get some sleep. The two earth ponies backed away slowly, and after they put some distance from between them and the goddess began talking. “Even if she does not look like it, she can be scary when she wants too.” “She sure can be.” “I sure am.” Celestia said from the distance, slightly amused by their reaction. At the sound of her voice the two stopped dead in their tracks. Fear creeped into their bodies and both of them were shaking violently. Even from such a distance she overheard them. “I think it is wise not to talk about her, ever.” the mare whispered in the ear of her companion. “I agree.” “Me too.” Celestia’s voice could be heard again this time more softly matching the volume of the two ponies. She giggled. They stood there motionless, heart pounding, chest tightening, hooves shaking for what seem to be forever. Fearing to turn back and see her smiling face. How much time had passed it is difficult to say, it could have been a minute or it could have been a day, but the two just stood there, fearing for their very lives. Later, while going to check if her two “guards” were still at their post Celestia passed them, giggling softly. After seeing her past them and disappearing in the distance had the two finally fallen to the ground exhausted. The stallion tried to say something but he quickly found the mares hoof in his mouth. “Do not say a word”, removing her hoof from her mouth, ”Not a word. Just don’t.” He nodded in approval. They went to sleep more tired than they ever thought they will ever be. “There you are.” Celestia told the two unicorns that were cowering behind a bolder, a few feet from the entrance. “The queen”, one of them said and both of them rose in attendance. “Your majesty what are you doing here?” They had not been so formal with her for years. Titles meant very little when you spend most of your life moving from place to place in search of food, hiding from Discord. “Is it so shocking to you to see me coming to check up on my brave and faithfull subjects. Anything to report?” “Nothing my queen. No sign of life whatsoever, not even a sound.” “Are you sure there is even anything in here? Beside us I mean.” “If something got Luna worried I think it is best to be careful. Now get something to eat while I stand guard.” Not long after Celestia started to keep watch on the entrance that she noticed a familiar figure limping from the darkness. “Luna, sister is that you?” she said after making her horn to glow. “Yes Lia, it is me.” Luna finally came into sight, her appearance much worse than before. Her chest was covered in small scratches and bruises, nothing too deep. The metal on her head had two deep cuts in it, and several smaller ones, "Claw marks?" she wondered. She was bleeding from two small holes in her neck and her feet were covered in green goop. She had clearly been in a battle. “Luna what happened? Are you alright?” Celestia said rushing towards her sister. “I am fine, but we can’t stay here much longer, it is not safe.” “What do you mean, what manner of creature did this to you.” “Creatures sister, and a lot of them, I will explain shortly. But now I really need a dink.” “Yes of course Luna. Come”, she extended her wing and placed it upon Luna. ”You two”, she said turning to the unicorns, “let me know the moment you see anything. Understood?” “Yes ma’am.” “Now come sister, let us get you something to drink, then you can tell us everything.” As they walked Luna starting about what she saw. “These tunnels run deep, they twist and turn, many lead to nowhere. I do not think they know where we are, yet. We should be safe for a little while, but we should think about moving sooner rather than later.” “I am glad that we are safe for now, but what were they?” “I have no idea. I never saw anything like them before. They sort of looked like bugs, most only as big as a filly, but...” Luna stopped mid sentence. “Sister what is the matter?” They were near the place where the puddle once was. Luna was quickly filled with anger. Just like before the earth ponies were being pushed aside by the unicorns. “What is the meaning of this!” Luna demanded to know. At the sound of her voice all stopped, turned their faces towards her and gazed upon the face of the enraged goddess. Celestia jumped away from her sister after the magical energies that emanated from her rapidly drained the heat from her body, burning her. What remained of Luna’s coat darkened, almost becoming black. Her face changed as well. Her pupils began to narrow, her irises were now red from rage and some of her teeth started sharpening resembling crude fangs. Her wings grew almost as large as Celestia’s, and became black. Dark blue mist formed around her, mostly where her tail and mane had once been. Small flashes of light resembling stars would appear at random inside the mist. If until now the unicorns only feared Luna, now they were terrified of her, fear also was showing on Celestia’s face, although she tried her best to hide it. “Sure my sister had troubles keeping her emotions under check, especially her rage, but, it never caused her to change her appearance, except..” The thought troubled her deeply. The only time she saw anything resembling this was during their battle with Discord. But even back then she did not have fangs, nor was that dark mist floating around her. She feared for the unicorns safety, she feared for her sisters well being, she even feared for her own life if she chose to intervene. The entire room shook violently as what once was Luna spoke. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” No pony had time to answer. “YOU WILL ANSWER ME NOW!” “My princess”, one of the ponies finally managed to muster the courage to respond. “We... we wanted to save the water for your sister and yourself.” These was clearly a lie and she had noticed it, also this was the first time anypony addressed Luna with a title, and princess nonetheless, flattering her seemed to do them no good. “HAVE I NOT MADE MYSELF CLEAR HOW IMPORTANT THESE TWO ARE TO ME?” As she spoke pieces of crystals were falling from the walls and ceiling like hail adding to the fear of the ponies. “LUNA CALM DOWN YOU ARE SCARING ALL OF US.” Celestia spoke with a voice that rival Luna's , but none of her anger. “All of us?” Luna saw the unicorns trembling in fear, and she liked it, but then her gaze turned towards the earth ponies. ”Why are they are holding onto each other? Do not they know they have nothing to fear from us? They are doing their best not to show that they feared us, but we can see the fear in their eyes. Why are they afraid of us.” This was not what she wanted. She did not want the only friends she had, except for her sister, to fear her like the rest did. She only had wanted to show these unicorns the price of hurting those she loved. Luna slowly began to calm down changing back to her old self. “I am sorry...” Luna said, her eyes teary, "I am so sorry I..." but her apology was cut short by two pair of arms wrapped around her neck, all three of them were now crying. Celestia wanted to join them as well, but there were more important matters at hoof than consoling her sister. Luna raised her head and looked her teary eyes friends. Then she addressed the still cowering unicorns. “If you treat these two bad again just because they are earth ponies I will make sure you will live just enough to regret it”, Luna said with the same sweet voice and angelic expression her sister had when she sent the two unicorns to what it would have seem to them a most gruesome fate. "Do I have your word?" “Yes our princess, you have our word”, one of the unicorns said with his voice shaking.”These two will be treated as if they were just like us.” “I will keep you to your word.” “So will I”, Celestia told them. And from that moment it was known that the word given between two ponies in the presence of Celestia or Luna would be the same as giving it too the sisters themselves. The SECOND LAW Luna would write after founding Equestria with her sister would be based on this. It would read: “Let it be known, from this day until the end, that any promise or word given between two ponies in the presence of Princess Celestia or in the presence of Princess Luna would be as sacred as any contract between the two. This is our will, and our will is law.” The Law would be rewritten twice. The first time, only a few years later, Equestria entered its first golden age, with more and more sentient creatures became part of their nation, the law would be rewritten to accommodate them. It now stated that “any promise or word given between two citizens” would be valid instead of only referring to ponies. Much later when Equestria spread over a vast area and it was impossible for the sisters to be everywhere at once the law was changed again. At the time they appointed delegates to handle local matters in the provinces. In order to keep up with the changing times, Luna modified the law a second time, it now stated that the promise made “in the presence of Princess Celestia or in the presence of Princess Luna or any appointed delegate that represents them” would be binding.